


The Tetrarchs Other Weapon

by Chocobo_Boy_Prompto



Category: Hiveswap, Homestuck
Genre: Aka watch me mutilate this entire series with my base level understanding, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dammek isn't an asshole, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hiveswap spoilers in general, Hiveswap: Act 2 Spoilers, I'm so sorry for this mess, It's been so long since I've published anything so tags are gonna be wack, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Oh, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Indulgent, This is more for my own fun than it is anything else, and Friendsim is considered canon in terms of events and endgame, and I'm using the lack of canon to justify some phat shit, he's just an overworked dork, to the extreme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:54:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29013147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocobo_Boy_Prompto/pseuds/Chocobo_Boy_Prompto
Summary: The day was like any other, Dammek narrowly escaped an untimely death, Kazark awaited the daily test, and Xefros was doing whatever Xefros usually did at this time, but it all changed when an alien took Dammeks place, and kickstarted a wild journey across Alternia.
Relationships: Dammek & Xefros Tritoh, Dammek/Original Troll Character(s) (temporarily unrequited), Dammek/Xefros Tritoh, Dammek/Xefros Tritoh/ Original Troll Character(s) (hinted), Joey Claire/Original Troll Character(s), Joey Claire/Xefros Tritoh, Joey Claire/Xefros Tritoh/ Original Troll Character(s), Xefros Tritoh/Original Troll Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. The Beginning to An Odd Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everyone tuning in, first of all, welcome, I hope you find some enjoyment from this story, and second of all, I want to explain my plans for this story, seeing as this story is different from others I've written, that being the fact that there's not much game to work with, and there won't be for quite a while. What I plan to do is make as much as possible with as little as I have to work with, that being more world building, character building, and hopefully some more places the cast will visit in between the main locations, because as you can see with the latest chapter (Chapter 3 as of writing this), we're into the second third of the story. But, after Act 2, I'm not confident I'll be updating this, seeing as this is supposed to follow Hiveswap and its canon story, if I do, expect some Naruto scale filler, I just don't want to have to literally retcon everything if something changes in the main story, I just don't have a clear cut plan because I don't want to leave this, basically unfinished for several years and potentially never pick it up again, but I'm also not sure if I can competently write Hiveswap's endgame to continue my own story along. We shall see whatever happens I suppose, anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

The transpiring events were a shock to be sure, after the tetrarch, as he oh so loved to be called, stumbled through the door to his hive, looking somewhat roughed up, not soon after the giant metal door closed, a massive, pronged metal object smashed into the door beside him. Seeing that he had an audience, Dammek shaped up, staring back at the lime blooded troll

“Kazark, are you ready for another test?” For his part, Kazark looked thoroughly disinterested in the roughed up shape of his temporary hivemate. 

“Why do you bother asking?” Kazark didn’t try to hide his annoyance, and Dammek seemed content to pretend that it was nonexistent.

“It’s for the greater good, you and I both know this, and besides, I have a surprise for you, I want to reward you for all your efforts and your cooperation” Dammek replied without hesitation. To this, Kazark didn’t reply, and silently followed the revolutionaire. Stuck in his own thoughts, about what the mystery could possibly be, Kazark was nudged aside by the tetrarchs lusus, and the three descended on the square elevator, into the lowest level of the hive. Kazark knew what was supposed to come next, as he separated from Dammek and entered the room to his left. It was clear to see that this room was more of a command room, judging by the large map on the stupidly massive screen at the far end of the room. However, shortly after Kazark was retrieved from the detainment facility, the room was transformed to accommodate the lime blooded troll, as to perform various tests, no doubt to embolden the plausibility of a successful revolution, as Dammek loved to point out whenever the other troll had any objections. Sitting in one of the slightly comfortable chairs, Kazark waited for Dammek to enter the room. Instead, Kazark heard the troll call out

“Kazark, did Xefros come by?” Rolling his eyes at the hold up, Kazark flatly responded

“Yes, yes he did”. Without missing a beat, the tetrarch called back

“He didn’t put the battery in the weapon, did he?” Annoyed at the 21 questions game he had gotten himself into, he scoffed, before responding

“That is indeed what he claimed to be doing when he arrived”. Kazark couldn’t make out the reply, but he could tell it wasn’t a happy one, and he snickered lightly. his slightly amused demeanor came to a halt when he felt the hive itself begin to shake. The sound of rubble hitting the ground. It was then that Kazark got up from his chair, taking note that Dammek hadn’t called out to him at all, not to inform him of the situation, request any aid (which Kazark probably wouldn’t have given him anyways), or even an exclamation of surprise at what had to be, a series of shocking events. Approaching the door, Kazark could feel something pulsing, some sort of energy transcending the physical barrier between the two, and just a few moments later, the tense feeling died down. When Kazark tried to exit the room, he found that the door wouldn’t open, prying at the slim gap between the two large, metal doors proved to be ineffective, he was completely locked in. No sooner had he resigned himself to sitting back in his chair, had he heard a higher pitched voice call out 

“Hello? Hello?! Can anyone hear me? Hello?!”. It clearly wasn’t Dammek. It neither sounded like him, or sounded like something he’d say, so Kazark responded

“Who are you?” The feminine sounding being gasped, not expecting an actual answer. 

“My name is Joey! W-what about yours?” Being somewhat relieved to be speaking to someone other than Dammek, Kazark responded

“My name is Kazark, er, call me Kaz, if you wish. Say, there wouldn’t happen to some idiot on the other side, right?”. After what Kaz thought to be a slightly length investigation, the person on the other side replied

“No, should there be someone here?” Kaz let out a loud, drawn out sigh.

“Preferably, yes, I can only assume you switched places with the oh so lovely owner of this Hive, and it seems like this door is locked… Hm, I can’t seem to open it from this side, or, rather, I don’t know how to, if you can, try and look around for some way to open the door”. Sounding annoyed, Joey replied

“You can’t open the door? I need to look around to do it for you?” Also getting rather annoyed, Kaz quipped back

“If you’re so inclined, you can leave me here, but I’m gonna guess that you have no ideas on how to leave, so how about this, you get me out, I’ll help you out, if that isn’t good enough, then I can’t exactly offer much else”. Joey then replied

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do from this side”. About 5 minutes into his waiting, the door suddenly whirred to life, opening in a slow, drawn out manner. It was then that Kaz and Joey came face to face. Before they could focus on the strikingly odd appearances of each other, Joey looked to her side, where another large door opened, and whatever was in there must have scared her, because she barreled into the small, lime blooded troll, and the door slammed shut behind her. When they were done flailing around, Joey was on top of Kazark, straddling his waist, leading to a rush of lime blood flushing Kazark’s cheeks, and red flushing Joey’s face. After they separated from one another, they took in their stark differences. Kaz spoke first

“You’re… Not exactly what I was expecting to see”. Unable to formulate a response to that, Joey just nodded, affirming that she too, was shocked by the person before her. “So… Uh, what are you doing here?” Relieved at the break from the awkward atmosphere, Joey began explaining how she was under attack by monsters, and that she inadvertently opened up some portal, and before she could understand what was happening, she was thrown out of a portal, and was on the floor.


	2. Getting Prepared

Kazark nodded, still entirely unsure of what to make of the new information.

“Well… Damn, I’m not exactly sure what to do, say, why didn’t you just go back through that portal?”

“Well, there seems to be some sort, force field? Something that’s blocking my path”. Nodding, Kaz explained

“Well, Dammek was heading up a huge rebellion, or at least, that’s what I’ve been told, so it’s no surprise he’d have some sort of security, just great…” Eyeing an odd orange rectangle, Kaz recognized it as a primary way of communication between the Tetrarch and his many allies. “Where did you get that?” Pulling out the tablet and handing it to Kazark, Joey explained how she found it on the floor of the room. After figuring out how the tablet was supposed to work, he noticed an odd string of messages, ones that didn’t seem to belong to Dammek. Noticing Kaz’s confusion, Joey quickly cleared it up

“Oh, I was trying to look for some help, this guy was acting really weird, he kept calling me ‘The Tetrarch’, and kept going on about how I was testing him”. Peering over at the screen name for the other correspondent, he noticed a familiar face

“Yep, you got Xefros, guy’s real naive sometimes, well meaning, but you’ve gotta spell things out word for word, here, let me try to talk to him”

Yo, Xefros

Tetrarch!

So did I pass the test?

? Xefros, there is no test, it’s me

Kkazarkk

Another test so soon? I know I can ace this one!

X:)

What? No, Xefros, I’m being serious

Dammekk is gone and there’s this

weird alien looking creature here, Joey.

Lookk, I literally have no idea what to do.

I know what this is!

Well, ‘Kazark’

I don’t know anything about this alien, or a secret weapon.

(Did I get it right?)

…

As your Tetrarch, I want you to tell me what you’d advise me on doing

In this scenario, how about that?

Oh, I’ve got this! Well, I’d regroup with your allies

And try to form a strategy

How was that? Was that good enough of an answer?

Yes Xefros, it was a fantastic answer.

You passed my test.

Kazark slipped the tablet back to Joey before he could bear witness to the gushing replies and lavish praise.

“We’re going to have to meet up with Xefros” Joey nodded, and asked

“How did you manage to get through to him?” To which Kazark simply pointed to the tablet.

“He really is naive” Kazark couldn’t help but notice Joey trying to hide her giggles as she read over the conversation, and he smiled to himself as he thought over the same conversation. “Anyways, we should get out of here-”

“W-wait!” Just as Kazark went to open the door, Joey called out to him.

“Yes?” With a blush of embarrassment, Joey said

“W-well, there’s some crazy wild animal on the other side!” Tilting his head, he asked

“Crazy animal? Huh… Big horns, white fur?” Joey nodded, and Kazark immediately understood. “I see, it seems there’s been a misunderstanding here, you’re referring to Dammek’s Lusus, I dunno know what’s got you so scared about ‘em, but they’re harmless, here, I’ll show you”. The tension between Dammek’s Lusus and Joey was clear as day, and Kazark was determined to dispel it. Opening the door, Kazark was greeted by the large lusus, and while the lusus had initially zeroed in on Joey, it refocused its attention on Kazark, as the lime blood mechanically petted the top of their head. The tension could be felt leaving the lusus’s body, and soon the lusus seemed entirely docile. “See? Nothin’ to worry about, lil’ guy was probably distressed at the fact that his troll counterpart was spirited away to a distant planet”. Joey had many questions, many important ones, and yet, the question she first asked was

“What are you doing to that thing’s head?” Confused Kazark explained

“Dammek instructed me to stroke his lusus’s head whenever they were in distress”. Joey was unable to suppress a bout of laughter at this explanation, and when she saw Kazark’s confusion, she began explaining 

“You just looked like a robot, wait, do you guys have robots here?” Huffing Kazark replied

“Y-yes we do! And no I do not!” Although he tried to sound angry and upset, the blush of embarrassment gave him away, and for her new friend’s sake, Joey dropped it, and noticed how much more calm the ‘lusus’ looked

“So, you said that this thing is a lusus? What’s a lusus?” Kazark looked back to Joey with shock evident across his face, but soon it dropped and he answered her question

“So… A lusus is a creature that looks after young trolls, cares for them” Joey seemed to understand

“Oh! So they’re like your parents?” Looking bewildered, Kazark answered

“Uh… What the hell is a parent?” Shocked at the language used by Kazark, Joey stood there, stunned for a few seconds, before piecing together an answer

“Well, a parent gives birth to children, and looks after them, they’re kinda like how you described a lusus”. Kazark nodded, and replied

“Ah, it seems we’re not too different, however, the circumstances of our birth and our guardians are extremely different, but that’s for another time, we should get going, are you comfortable going back out into this room?” Joey nodded, and the three went back into the room with the secret weapon, and Kazark noticed that what Joey said was true, and Joey asked

“So you live with this guy, but you don’t know anything about this security system?” Kazark shook his head

“I know about the broader plans, but I wasn’t expected to handle this weapon, so I was never taught about it” Joey finally asked

“So… You’ve talked about a secret weapon, and a rebellion, but what are you rebelling against?” 

“You see, here on Alternia, we are bound by a caste system called the Hemospectrum. People like Dammek and Xefros are lowbloods, they have it worse than someone like me, respectively, they’re Bronze and rust bloods, rust bloods are the bottom of the rung, and can be culled -(culled?)- killed for any reason. Dammek has organized a lowblood rebellion to overthrow the oppressive Hemospectrum, and make a planet fair for us all… At least that’s what he’s saying”. Overwhelmed, Joey tried to quell her curiosity one by one

“Wait, do you believe this Dammek guy is manipulating everyone in his cause?” Kazark looked uncertain before he said his answer

“Not exactly, I just think sometimes his ego needs to be reigned in lest be become another Trizza” At the unfamiliar name, Joey asked

“Trizza? Who’s that?”

“Trizza Tethis, leader of the oppressive Alternian Empire, and the highest on the Hemospectrum, she bombs, culls and decimates the lowbloods for a myriad of reasons… Or none, it really just depends on what she’s feeling”. Joey nodded, regretting her question, but she continued on asking.

“You mentioned bronze and rust bloods, also the Hemospectrum? Could you explain what those all mean?” Kazark nodded

“Here on Alternia, we are probably vastly different from the aliens on your native world, Trolls have a myriad of different blood colors, in terms of lowest to highest, it goes from burgundy, bronze, gold, olive, jade, teal, blue, indigo, purple, violet and fuschia”. Joey nodded “oh, but you should know, the lowest class in Alternia is alien… So don’t try and stick out to anyone, you’ll be executed on sight, the empress hates aliens” with a frightened expression on her face, Joey once again nodded.

“If you don’t mind, what color is your blood?” Kazark seemed to pause, debating whether to tell Joey, before he ultimately answered

“Look, I’m only telling you this because you would have literally nothing to gain by ratting me out, considering you’d be culled before you could even get the words out. I’m a lime blood, I’d fit in between a gold blood and an olive blood. Though the thing is, I’m actually in the same boat as you”. Confused, Joey asked

“Why would you be in the same boat as an alien?” Kazark explained

“Well, the truth is, lime bloods have been systematically culled, my specific blood caste poses a problem for the hierarchy, which keeps all the low bloods in place, subservient to the empire, to get around that, my blood caste has been wiped out, I am almost certainly the only lime blood on Alternia”. Joey gasped in horror

“Oh my god, Kazark, I’m so sorry! I can’t imagine the burden that would place on you-” 

“O-oh, no need to f-feel bad for me, I’m fine!” Kazark tried to fight how his throat seemed to close up when he tried to reassure Joey, and Joey noticed his stutter and slightly higher pitched voice. It didn’t help matters when Dammeks lusus came up to comfort the lime blooded troll. When Joey looked at Kazark, the troll boy now looked rather vulnerable, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but ultimately decided against it. “X-Xefros is still waiting for us, we should get going, I’m sure Dammek told _someone_ about this thing, so maybe Xefros can point us in the right direction, don’t get your hopes up though”. Joey nodded her head and followed Kazark, feeling rather numb, and somewhat guilty for making him re-experience such a traumatic memory, and even more so that she couldn’t help him, but she knew that it would take some time, and the two had just met, it only helped ease her a tiny bit.


	3. House Scavenging

Kazark led Joey to a platform, and when Dammeks lusus had gotten onto the platform, Kazark hit a button and they ascended into the living quarters.

“We may not be returning to this Hive for a while, so we should take a look around and take whatever we may think we’ll need, don’t be shy, Dammek won’t mind… At least, I don’t think so”. With that, the two split up, Joey took to exploring the kitchen, and the lusus followed her, and Kazark explored Dammek’s personal room, and investigating the odd hole in the ground, as well as exploring with wiggler-like glee, as he had never been allowed into the room before. There was a massive amount of guns, and while he was well versed in Dammeks goals, he wasn’t so well informed about weapons, such as these. It was unfortunate, but he simply couldn’t make use of any of the guns, although, when he thought about it, he reasoned that it was for the best that he wasn’t able to use any of the weapons, he’d likely lose his cool and get himself, Joey, and Xefros killed, not to mention he’d probably jeopardize Dammek’s operations here, well, assuming the massive crash didn’t do the operation in first.

 _‘Would I restrain myself from letting loose if no one else would suffer for it?’_ It was a difficult question to answer, and it made him think uncomfortable things. Kazark never placed his life that high on an artificial importance scale, with his particular predicament, he had the shortest life out of anyone, but with how freely he thought of these martyr-like thoughts, he didn’t know if that was a sign of heroism, or a sign of issues with his thinkpan, though it was probably both.

he couldn’t find much, when he turned to leave, he saw a lime colored package close to Dammek’s recuperacoon, and his nosiness got the best of him and without much thought, he snatched the gift, tearing into it, knowing that this was supposed to be his surprise Dammek had bought him. Opening the box beneath the wrappings, he came face to face with a tablet of his own, half of it was a burgundy color, and the other half of it was bronze colored, and when he inspected the back, he saw a hand crafted engraving of both of his friends signs on their respective color. For a moment, he felt his heart stop. When he reluctantly turned the back of the tablet away from his eyes, he turned on the tablet screen, only to see the coverscreen. The image holder was a picture of him, Dammek, and Xefros celebrating his most recent sweep day. They were all happy, not focussed on a revolution, not focused on a super-weapon, it was just the three of them, having a good time, they were happy, but now, they had fallen apart, one of them was gog knows where, and the other two were likely going to get themselves culled, just trying to help a new friend, and bring back their old one.

“There you are Kaz!” Kazark hadn’t heard Joey calling for him, and jumped when she announced her presence. Whirling around to face her, Joey let out a gasp. “Kaz, are you okay?! You’ve got tears trailing down your face!” Checking it for himself, he was shocked to see that he did in fact have lime colored tears streaming down his face.

“I just… It’s hard to explain, I guess I feel bad, Dammek got me this as a surprise, and he was supposed to give this to me later today, but then everything happened and… Just look at it”. Handing over the tablet, Joey had much the same reaction that Kazark did. As she looked over the tablet and inspected it, Kazark continued “shortly before you two swapped places. I… I kinda unloaded my frustrations out on him, not completely, but we didn’t end on a good note” taking a deep breath, he swallowed a lump in his throat before continuing “J-Joey? About your world, Is it dangerous like mine? D-Dammek is safe there… Right?” His grief and worrying was as clear as day, and Joey immediately reassured him.

“I promise Dammek is safe on my world, no one would want to hurt him, he’ll come back, I promise, h-hey, so I noticed the picture on the screen, what’s that about?” Her attempt to change the conversation to a lighter topic worked, as Kazark talked about the circumstances of the photo.

“O-oh! That was taken around my sweep day! Me and Xefros had finally convinced Dammek to ease up on the rebellion plotting, at the time, and… He was such a different person, even for the night, everything felt normal, well, as normal as it can feel for the lowest of the low, but we were happy, no rebellion, no training, no… No neglect” Kazark cut himself off with a frown at the words he ended off with, and Joey couldn’t help but reciprocate the expression at Kazark’s words

“Does this Dammek guy not care about you two?” But to that, Kazark shook his head emphatically

“No! Not at all! He just rarely had time for us, with all the plotting and all, and I’m pretty sure that he masterminded most of it, he’s very particular about it. There were times where he’d work himself to sleep, wake up from the nightmares, and go right back to work. After a while, I just felt... neglected, and lonely. But it’s selfish of me, he’s doing it for all of us, but I just wanted to see that side of him more, I can only hope this ends soon so he can stop working himself to death”. Joey nodded, but was still unsure of what to make of the situation and held his hand, squeezing it in solidarity

“I’m sure things will change, and you’ll see him acting like normal!” Reassured by his new friend’s words of encouragement, a smile returned to his face as he took possession of the tablet once again and looked over it fondly.

“You’re right, we should go, Xefros is waiting for us”. Joey nodded, and the two set off to the front door, but just as Kazark was going to open the main door, Joey casually said

“Oh, I fixed Deercat!” Kazark was confused, and asked

“Deercat? Who’s that?” Joey smiled and said

“Well, I noticed that you never called Dammek’s lusus by a name, so I thought I may as well give him one, he seems to like it too!” Mulling it over, Kazark smiled and nodded his head in approval.

“Odd name, but I think it fits, oh! But what did you mean by ‘fix’?” Joey elaborated and explained

“Oh, well, it turns out when I was going through Dammek’s stuff, I heard Deercat whimper, when I inspected Deercat, I noticed that he had a splinter in his paw, and I used an odd kit I found, and a book on... Lusii? Anyways, I used that to help Deercat, and he’s all better!” Smiling, Kazark congratulated Joey, and instinctively held out his hand for a fist bump, it took Joey off guard, but smiling once more, she replied by completing the fist bump.


	4. Meeting Xefros

When the door opened, the two hopped onto Deercat, and with little delay, they absconded across the street, and over to Xefros’s hive. Pulling out his own tablet, hoping to be able to message Xefros with minimal issues. Pulling open Chitter, Kazark was surprised to see that Xefros had already messaged him, after reading the message, he messaged Xefros

Happy Sweep day Kazark! I hope you’re doing well!

I’m really happy you’re here with us!

Message me whenever you want to!

Hey Xefros, I’d be happy to gush over your message later, 

unfortunately, we’re right outside your hive and

your lusus is kkind of in the way, ccould you get him out of the way so we ccan enter?

Also

...

Thank you

Sure thing, be down in a sec!

And, you’re welcome!

  
  


Before long, the giant lusus had gotten up, and had moved out of the way, allowing both Joey and Kazark to enter, and reach relative safety. When Xefros came into view, Kazark took the time to introduce the two

“Joey, this is Xefros, Xefros, this is Joey”. After a brief exchange of hello’s, Xefros asked

“Kaz, where is the Tetrarch?” Kazark explained

“Well, as the two of us _tried_ to tell you, Dammek is gone, and Joey is here, there seems to be some sort of force field in the way of his secret weapon, I was hoping you’d know something about how to get around that”. After taking stock of the situation, Xefros nodded and said

“I think there’s someone who can help us, a high blood, named Cridea, she’s going to be throwing a party really soon, we could try to get her help” Joey looked between the two, and asked

“Is she gonna care that I’m…” Kazark didn’t respond, as he couldn’t speak on behalf of Cridea’s character, as he didn’t know of her existence until just 5 seconds ago, but Xefros didn’t hesitate

“No, no, Cridea is a highblood, so, ya know…” With a confused expression on her face, Joey tilted her head and asked

“Know what?” Xefros jumped slightly in his shock, and turned to Kazark

“Did you not teach her about the hemospectrum?” Somewhat embarrassed, Kazark nodded and said

“Of course I did! But I didn’t have the downtime necessary to give her a whole lesson on it, just the basics, we were busy trying to vacate Dammeks hive, on account of the massive explosion bringing a lot of attention to us, I don’t think I need to explain why that’s bad...”. Xefros gave a nervous laugh and nodded, rubbing the back of his head. Kazark turned to Joey “what you need to know is that the higher you are on the hemospectrum, the more socially desirable you are, so to speak, so if Cridea was known to be associating with revolutionaries, she’d be culled immediately, so I don’t think her knowing you’re an alien would matter much, not unless she has some sort of hate bulge against aliens, figuratively speaking at least, what you should be worrying about, is the journey there, wherever we’re going” Joey looked at him in confusion, while Xefros felt his face flush with burgundy blood in embarrassment and shock at hearing Kaz speak in such a blunt manner.

“You don’t know where we’re going?” Joey asked. Kazark casually shook his head

“No, I haven’t been out of the hive for a long while, actually, I only ever left the hive once, reason being that I’m sure any drone would recognize me and terminate me on the spot” when he looked back at Joey, he saw her confused face, and sighed “basically I’d be dead if I walked around freely, so I’ve been managing stuff from behind the scenes, hey Xefros, since you’re more knowledgeable about these things, would you mind teaching her about this world? You’re the only one here with actual experience in these areas” Xefros nodded, and not too long after that they left to go upstairs, leaving Kazark to dwell on some things.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his mind off of one thought, he couldn’t forget about his _other_ friend.

It had been so long since he had spoken to that mysterious person, in fact, he couldn’t recall their name, he was unsure of if he had ever even gotten their name, they were just… There, in the back of his mind he found it painfully convenient that they managed to cross paths when they did, but at the time, he thought nothing of it, he was just fascinated by the alien creature he had encountered, standing outside, ignorant as an alien could be about their impending doom, and everything rolled onwards from there, it was surreal how the alien managed to charm Kazark, almost without trying. Then one day, they disappeared, Chitter had gone inactive, they stopped showing up, and as they days went by, any hope of seeing his third friend faded, as did his joy, he had finally found someone that could relate his his particular situation, and just as fast as they had entered his life, they walked out on it. He tried to remain positive, keeping his bitterness away, but it became more and more obvious how forced his optimism was. When his facade cracked, Xefros and Dammek saw a form of despondent misery they had never once seen before. He had been numb, shy and nervous, but this was a new level of misery that shocked them to anger. To be given a friend, only to be ghosted by them, no explanation, nothing, it was as though someone pulled Kazark from the ashes of his hive, only to throw him into the body of his dead lusus, out of the pan and into the fire. He had finally found one of the few people that wouldn’t judge him for his caste and immediately report him, and they vanished without a trace. When he finally wore his heart on his sleeve, Kazark witnessed an unrecognizable anger, and he wasn’t afraid to admit that it was scary, seeing Xefros and Dammek get so angry when they found out what was hurting him so much. In the end, his fear gave way to a feeling of uncapped gratitude towards the two, for everything they had given him, and they never once demanded he do anything in return, and when he saw how they reacted, he realized that didn’t feel so alone anymore.


End file.
